The List: 19 Aug 1994 (Issue 234)

Stylish but lacking in substance. Size 12 offers a comic exploration of the world of women‘s magazines. Tracking the experiences of three hapless readers who win a Size 12 Magazine makeover. it attempts to explode some of the comic and serious aspects of female self-image.

Welcome to the bedsit world of Peter Baynham — slob. loser and pathetic social reject. Still he does a mean line in handy home-cooking tips to poison your friends with. Frozen chicken lolly anyone? if he is not enough to make your ﬂesh creep. then his ﬂatmates will. They are the most revolting bunch of sweaty. lip-licking. itchy. stained misﬁts imaginable. Each 'one of them lays out their miserable lives in front of the audience and details their sordid habits. You laugh but your stomach is heaving and you'll check yourself for fleas when

maneu- :watc ii.

V COMEDY ACINO SONYA

f An actress best know ior her role as

g one halt (the dark-haired one) oi the

Philadelphia cheese double act plays a ; character who makes lokes about

! brands of household cleaner. This is

i truly theatre for the tire-minute

5 culture. Ann Bryson is the dumpy,

' irumpy and grumpy younger sister preparing to be upstaged once again at Sonya’s glamorous wedding. When she comes to In a party-ravaged ilat, Ann

Aclng Sonya: party post-modem

tries to piece together the events oi the previous night’s stag party which she gatecrashed. This sit-com-style tale oi sibling rivalry is typical oi the slickly-wrltten comedies the Assembly . items has become known tor. Entertaining, but don’t bother looking ior meaning. (Eddie Gibb)

lick Wilty: giobetrotter Travellers’ tales are what Wilty does on his night. You get a list of the 38 jobs he did in 58 countries before turning to stand-up comedy. He gets to reminisce: ﬁrst off with the straightforward account of how he made his ﬁrst naive trip at seventeen. Then it‘s up to you. You’ve got the list. just ask the questions.

Wilty is a good enough raconteur to make his hour pass too fast. flipping from one

WILTY’S WORLD . 5

anecdote to the next 3 without labouring any one

of comedic fun that is the

for too long, as a random backpacker might ifyou

i cornered them in the pub and fed them the ticket price in alcohol. Light. but

No one impersonates a Glasgwegian drunk as well as Bruce Morton. Not even a Glaswegian drunk. No-one could re- invest the well-wom feast

twilight. stained-shoe. stomach-chuming world of Kebabarama with fresh 5

humour like old baldy

here (his words. probably). Likewise. l rarely in the ﬁeld of j human observation has someone so acutely ’ described braying. l cackling female I Glaswegian factory I workers (his maw and her mates) as ‘cyber-geese‘. Just as his television series Sin managed to drag buckets of material from the seven deadly pleasures. so Morton's ﬂoor-show has plenty to say on boring. standard stand-up stuff like drink.

word was. Donna McPhail had forgotten a goodly chunk of her set. Twenty- four hours later she had come up with a handy crib-sheet-with-pink- highlighter-pen aide memoire. Alas. this device

(not cheating. oh no guv. honest) did not prevent either a similar absent- minded jitteriness. nor her show. sliding into downright rambling pleasantness. Last year. which saw McPhail 'come out’ on stage (kind of). there was a steely edge to her tales of kite-like Femidoms. sexual traumas and dope. This year. her grab-bag of anecdotes and schtick—less one-liners were too casual to titillate. Of course. ‘casual‘ can mean ‘relaxed and groovy'. Here itjust means ‘half- assed'. (Craig McLean)

John Hegley: hilarious and ' dull Hey kids, comedy is the new rock ’n‘ roll (groan). According to John Hegley. poetry is the new soul and he is Barry White: well he's got a suit on and the entire content of his brand new show is devoted to love (and Eric Cantona). As per usual Hegley leans heavily on the audience participation thing: never are we allowed to leave the journey through the ups and downs (and more downs) of Hegley‘s amorous wounds. For fans it‘s pleasing to know that Hegley's new material is as dehydrated as ever. For the uninitiated you may be' wary of a performer who seems to revel in sniding the audience. His sublime realism is as banal. confusing and trying as ever. for every hilarious moment there’s a dull one — it's worth considering those odds before parting with your hard earned cash. (Philip Dorward) I Love Cuts (Fringe) John Hegley. Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550. until 3 Sept. 8.50pm. £8/£7 (£7/£6).

8.30pm. £6 (£5).

Leno and Woodley: madcap brillianc

FESTIVAL arm/10m

cnossmc me are

Two suicides. a hung prisoner and a starved nun meet in Purgatory. A diabolical keeper ironically provides a will to live. and a hallucinatory transgression takes place. Whilst admiring the production's energetic.

: gymnastic style. it seems at odds with the text. and is pitched throughout at

the same frenzied level. leaving a determined cast without anywhere to take things.

This is a shame. as the possibilities for the piece are far wider than its intended remit. For though stilted at times. the

play remains evocative of ‘. human suffering and had i the potential for liberation I ; through the power of the

reincarnations of Buster Keaton — with lobotomies and a tight grip on your funny bone.

They‘re goofy guys. arms down to their ankles and a naive demeanour which hides a very slick and professional show. Visual gags and clever optical illusions provide most of the laughs but if necessary they can ad lib with a quick silver

fluency.

Between them. Leno and Woodley have resurrected slapstick and turned it into an artform. it‘s an old line but it could be true — ifyou see just one show this year. make it this one. The opening scene is worth the ticket money alone. (Jonathan Trew)